All about ski lifts, tramways and gondolas

This is not a good week for tramways in Europe. An incident last night on the highest mountain in Germany severely damaged one of two Eibsee Cable Car cabins during a practice exercise. Apparently a rescue carrier broke loose due to a broken chain hoist and crashed into the 120 passenger tramway cabin below at high speed. Like with the fire at a French tram on Tuesday, the lift was free of passengers and luckily no one was injured. A Zugspitze spokesperson says the Garaventa-built tram will be out of service until further notice.

The lift became the pinnacle of ropeway technology when it opened last December, breaking world records for the tallest lattice tower (416 feet), longest ropeway span (10,541 feet) and highest vertical rise (6,381 feet), making this a truly stunning setback. When a cabin on the Alyeska, Alaska tram hit a tower in 2013, technicians were able to replace it with a counterweight in just a few weeks until a new cabin could be manufactured. We’ll have to wait and see whether CWA can repair the Zugspitze cabin or must fabricate a whole new one.

Update: “The investigations continue into the accident. The ropeway manufacturer Garaventa, the cableway supervisor and the expert organization Rotec are involved. With the first findings of a reconnaissance flight and drone shots, they are now working on a solution to recover the damaged cable car cabin.”

Another update: “After an extensive analysis of the situation at the Zugspitze cable car, the Bavarian Zugspitzbahn, the cable car manufacturer Garaventa, the cableway supervisor and the expert organization Rotec are now working on the organization of the recovery. The preparations for this should start next week. Since salvage by helicopter is impossible, the salvage concept now plans to bring the damaged cable car cabin including the basket to the mountain station and dismantle it there.”

Thanks Peter. I was really looking forward to taking the Eibsee-Seilbahn cable car all the way from Lake Eibsee up to the top and then the cogwheel down the mountain. Have you heard when that will reopen?